You didn't ask but the first ALES plane was 76.4oz and the new one is 63.5oz flying weight. Both planes arrive at 200m in 27 seconds consistently at density altitudes of close to 5,000 feet. I've tried 14x7 and 15x6 props with little difference. I have a 15x8 that I'm going to try as soon as the winds stop blowing.

I am using a 3S1P of A123 or LiFe batteries. I recently put this setup on a wattmeter and was getting 50amp draw at right at 400 watts. We put a 3S1P Lipo on it and got close to 700watts and 72amp draw! Wow! I am still a Lipo holdout because I still have nightmares, not really, about the fire I put out in a friends van a few years ago.

Hope this helps.
Please keep me posted with your build! Oh, you're more than welcome to post any photos or other information here on this thread or is you start a new one please let me know where it is!

Yea, the price of those motors went through the roof! A couple years ago they were $75 now $110. I wonder if it had something to do with the Tsunami in Japan? It is a nice smooth running motor. There are some folks here purchasing the MVVS motor as they are in a can and you don't have to worry about wire chaffing. They are a bit heavier I believe.

There are some retired folks here that started an assembly line process and are building six (6) ALES eSupra's! They are using a different airfoil, different planform and 140" span. The wing area is the same so they'll have a higher aspect ratio. For simplicity they are making a two panel wing instead of the four that I made. It makes cutting cores much faster!

It'll be interesting to see the level of competition change here with the advanced models.

I will decide later on the motor, anyway I am flying F5J style so big power is not needed, the 30 secs are used to seek for activity rather than gaining height. An approach I really like. That said I had been using some super cheap HK motors on smaler planes (2.5 to 3m) with perfect results for this category, but maybe I will put some more euros together for the Hyperion motor.

Funny fact I am now reading a book called "Hyperion" might be a sing

Regards

EZ

PS. Curtis on a side not, have you ever consider to have a electronic deliver of your tutorial videos, something like Dropbox or goggle drive, in that way you save cost and time on burning DVD and customers like me will save on shipment cost and Annoying TAX fees :P I would be glad to be one of the first customers

PS. Curtis on a side not, have you ever consider to have a electronic deliver of your tutorial videos, something like Dropbox or goggle drive, in that way you save cost and time on burning DVD and customers like me will save on shipment cost and Annoying TAX fees :P I would be glad to be one of the first customers

I'm asked that quite often and it's something I'd really like to do but I have yet to find a safe secure way to host them at a price I wish to afford. I don't want them on the internet for everyone to freely download, even though I guess that's possible for someone to do with DVD's the consumer has received in the mail. It would be easiest to do a computer version over one where the purchaser would have to burn a disk, that's something I could do. Hmm.

well that is an option some who with a password, but at the end of the day Pirates can hack the big companies why not you :P I dont mean it wrong (it happened to me some years ago) but why to bother so much if at the end of the day they will do it.

Anyhow I think the niche group is rather small and we will not be doing illegal copies

I'm asked that quite often and it's something I'd really like to do but I have yet to find a safe secure way to host them at a price I wish to afford. I don't want them on the internet for everyone to freely download, even though I guess that's possible for someone to do with DVD's the consumer has received in the mail. It would be easiest to do a computer version over one where the purchaser would have to burn a disk, that's something I could do. Hmm.

Curtis

Hi Curtis and Ez,
I just wonder if the idea of a quick down load of your films is worth it , When I ordered from you Curtis it was a very quick turn around and the DVD was in my house well within a week.
Just my 2 pence worth.
Chris

Hi Curtis and Ez,
I just wonder if the idea of a quick down load of your films is worth it , When I ordered from you Curtis it was a very quick turn around and the DVD was in my house well within a week.
Just my 2 pence worth.
Chris

Chris,

That's great to hear! That's pretty quick to jolly ole England. Did Customs tack on any extra? I've had folks in Great Britain report that the customs office charged as much as I charge for the DVD. It seems to be isolated cases though.

I'm working on some testing for downloads and should know by the middle of the week how I may proceed but it really is an option I've wanted for quite some time.

Hi Curtis,
No the customs office on this item didn't charge a duty, But it is a bit of a lottery.
But recently a friend from South Africa sent an Alula as a gift from Dream Flight and on that occasion they thought it was a good idea to charge ! No logic in it whatever.
How goes the Red Merle ? any more comps lately ?
Chris

The Red Merle is the best flying model I have ever flown. Dr. Drela has done more for this hobby for me than anyone else, with his superb airfoils, free plans and excellent designs it has just changed thermal hunting in so many ways.

We were to have a contest yesterday but as in the usual fashion it is Memorial day weekend and we have a few inches of snow on the ground this morning!

The makeup date is in two weeks as the power guys have a pylon race next weekend and many of the ALES folks will be there helping out.

I need one more flight and then I will post a video with an onboard camera showing the wing and tails with different views during launch, landing and a loop or two to show folks exactly what is going on with the model.

No one has asked but I don't think there is one thing that I would change. Oh, I would place a small balsa block in the wing where the aft joiner alignment pin goes.

I also wouldn't want it any lighter either. The 9 oz sq/ft wing loading is right on.

Well I'd always suspected that the boom wasn't strong enough to withstand landings. I'd placed a small camera on many locations of the model and the only issue I've seen was on landings with the tailboom flexing. The rest of the model is perfect! I'll post the video soon. I have one more view to shoot and then some editing. It's interesting to see what goes on with the model if flight.

Anyway, as you can see in the photos the boom had a compression failure just behind where it joins the forward pod on top. This was most certainly caused during landings. The nose would touch down first followed by the tail hitting the ground causing the bending action.

The boom lacked hoop strength as there was no fiberglass in it and also with the biaxial sleeving their is less carbon on the larger diameter part of the boom as it expands.

I was practicing landings and setting up the transmitters elevator compensation with flaps and was doing 1 minute landing drills. I bet I flew the model 4-6 times with the failed boom! I couldn't tell as the aerodynamic down force on the tail kept things in alignment. Interesting.

I weighed the fuselage prior to starting so I could see how much weight was added after the repair.

First I just aligned the boom and put some superglue on it to hold it's shape. It was actually pretty stiff afterwards.

I added 1.25 wraps of 4.7ounce Style 716 or 80/20 carbon to the boom from the where the boom exits the pod to the stab V-mount. I chose this fabric as it was all I had on hand and out monthly contest was in three days!

Wrapping a boom on a completed model is easier said than done with not being able to spin the boom in a lathe of sorts. However, with the help of my wife it went very well. So how much and how far should I wrap the boom?

Since the boom has a smaller diameter than the V-Stab mount and I had to beef up the boom underneath the stab mount, this created a hard spot in the boom at that point. I was concerned that if I only ran the carbon fiber halfway down the boom I'd be creating another hard point midway down the boom and I'd have a failure sometime during the flying season. So that's why I wrapped the boom pretty much full length.

I cut the carbon to the dimensions and wet it out on the bench. I had my wife hold the model vertically on the nose and I slightly wet the boom with some epoxy. Then I picked up the carbon and tacked it on the boom and rolled it around by hand. It went around easily and wrapped up tightly. Then I wrapped it with VCR tape by having my wife spin the model round and round. I let it cure overnight.

The next day I removed the VCR tape but it was a permanent part of the layup!
I've done a few dozen booms and I've never the VCR tape stick. However, I was out of the roll of VCR tape I had been using and started with a new one. I've read where some tapes stick and other don't. I did use the inside of the tape, as normal.
More info here: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...2#post21855282

So I sanded the tape off, I still have a little more to do but at this point it really stiffened up the boom. Once sanded I'll thin some epoxy with alcohol and put a very light coat on the boom and that will shine it up nicely. I am more than confident now that it'll last the life of the model.

I was thrilled at the added weight; 0.72 ounces! Yippee! I'll never notice that additional weight in the tail.